Falling Slowly
by Alysskea
Summary: Rory is adopted by Kurt and Blaine in New York, where he meets Sugar Lopez Pierce, the mysterious and yet difficult girl who he can't help but fall for.But, like everyone, Sugar has secrets.
1. Chapter 1

_Hello! :') Sugar and Rory have basically become my new OTP, and I love the idea that they are the children of Klaine and Brittana. Hence, I went and wrote fic about it. Enjoy!_

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><p>The social worker eyed the documents carefully, looking out for criminal convictions, therapists reports, diseases, anything that might mean that the seemingly perfect, if slightly flamboyant couple sitting across from her couldn't take the boy home. She was still a little unsure as to why they'd set their heart so firmly on the Irish teenager when they had some perfectly adorable toddlers who were in need of homes, but they'd informed her that they liked to do things differently, and that they'd like to use their own experiences to help young boys who's lost their way. They had money, enough for private school even, a good home. Frankly, she was sold. "Sign here."<p>

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><p>Kurt and Blaine had been waiting for this day since about five minutes after they had moved to New York. It had only taken them a few months to decide that they wanted to go through an adoption agency, Kurt was adamant that there was no need to go through fertility treatment when there were kids who needed a home already. They, of course, had been looking for a baby like all young couples that approached the Upper East Side agency, which looked rather too much like a high school for either of their liking. Rory had been feeling apathetic that day. It hadn't taken him long to notice that bright-eyed newlyweds who came to his care home weren't looking for fifteen year old misfits. He sat in the corner of the common room with is nose buried in a magazine about video games. He'd never played a video game in his life, and he wasn't actually reading it. Instead, he was listening to the uncannily attractive gay couple on the other side of the room be sweet-talked by one of the social workers. One looked oddly similar to Rory himself and had a bewildered expression on his face while the other was smaller, stockier and had a mop of curls on his head which completely ruined the high-end look he was going for. He almost felt bad for them.<p>

Rory had only been in New York for five months, but he'd been living in the care home for all of them. He often complained about it, but in truth he was relieved. He had no desire to go into another foster home and someone try to love him. They never did, and he didn't blame them. You love a child who you watched grow up, with a sweet smile and a soft voice and good grades not the Irish kid you picked up off the side of the street in the middle of puberty. Rory supposed that that wasn't all of it though, part of the reason they didn't love him was because he was unlovable. It sounds extreme out loud like that, but it was something he had come to accept over the last few years. His parents had left him behind within months, alone in a room. He thought he could remember vaguely, but the faces of his parents had long since faded. Then there had been the foster homes, and what could he say? He'd gone into foster care with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. Now, he needed medication just to make him get out of bed. The meds helped a bit, he supposed, after all here he still was. Yes, Rory mused, the life of the unlovable was a hard one.

His thoughts were interrupted by the smaller of the couple he'd been watching, who sat down tentatively next to him. The other was still deep in conversation across the room.

"What're you reading?" Rory looked up at him, anxious. People didn't generally just _start talking_ to him anymore unless they were accusing of something. His throat was dry, so he kept his mouth shut while he watched warm hazel eyes skim over the page he had open.

"Nope," the man said "Not even going to pretend to be interested in that." Rory bit his lip as he felt a smile approaching, surely it was weird to smile at a stranger.

He cleared his throat "Me neither."

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><p>Rory had absolutely no idea how he had got here. He had gone from what felt like total solitude to being the object of love and affection from two of the most caring men he had ever met. They'd let him pick out his own wallpaper, furniture and wardrobe, they'd given him his own laptop and enrolled him in the best school in the district. He <em>told<em> them he didn't need all this stuff, but they just laughed and replied that he was an investment. He'd asked Blaine one night, while they sat up eating ice cream and watching college football reruns, why they'd wanted to adopt him in the first place. Blaine had laughed, and tried to avoid the question, commenting on the plays on their TV screen.

Rory didn't laugh with him, and shrank back a little on the couch "You could have had anyone in that place. A little girl, a baby, maybe a little boy who knows how to run around and shoot hoops or something- I don't know. Why me? When you had all those kids to choose from, why did you make such a fuss about me?" Blaine frowned as though deep in thought, but relaxed a minute or so later.

"First of all, you make it sound like it's customary to choose your child, which it isn't. But really..." He trailed off, a smile tugging at his lips. "You remind me of him," he motioned his head towards the bedroom "when I first met him. He had that same lost look, the one you get when you're too confused even to be scared anymore. I think he looked to me to give him hope, but really all the hope was inside of him, and he was the one giving me hope." Blaine chuckled softly to himself, his eyes glazed over as though in a dream "He still does, actually."

Rory felt a tear in his eye. Having grown up in a place so devoid of love, it still made him feel incredibly emotional to hear people talk about it the way Blaine was.

"You think I can give you hope?" The teenager looked doubtful, but Blaine smiled at him with shining eyes.

"Rory, you already give me hope." He lay a hand on the boy's shoulder "Now get to bed, before your other dad finds out you're up and confiscates the ice cream."

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><p>Rory met her on his third day at River High School. She'd been sitting alone in the corner of English class, next to the only available seat. Sugar was vaguely aware of him approaching but she chose not to look up, instead choosing to stare at the handout in front of her with a decidedly unhappy look on her face. To the unconcerned observer she would have looked as though she was concentrating on the reading, but Rory knew that look: She was trying not to cry. She flinched away from him when he sat down, shifting her chair up next to the wall and leaning over her little notebook, scribbling something quickly. She didn't seem to care that he looked over to see what she was writing.<p>

_I wish I'd never been born.  
>I wish I'd never been born.<br>I wish I'd never been born.  
>Sugar Lopez Pierce wishes she had never been born.<em>

Rory pretended not to notice that a tear had dropped onto the paper between 'Lopez' and 'Pierce'. The teacher was in the middle of setting their homework when the girl next to him, Sugar Lopez Pierce, Rory assumed stormed out of the classroom. The teacher gave the door a wistful look, but didn't stop talking. No one else even looked up.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello! You came back for chapter two! The plot sort of starts to unfold here, and I'd really appreciate a review telling me what you think of it._

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><p>Rory had spent much of his weekend thinking about the girl from the English classroom. At first, it had simply been her strange behaviour that had struck him, followed by the strange behaviour of everybody else. Clearly the girl cried in class enough that it had become something unremarkable, but why? The more he dwelled on the incident in the classroom, the more Rory began to think about how pretty she was, and how even her sad eyes had seemed to sparkle. Of course, he didn't like to entertain such thoughts, but he couldn't help being distracted. His dads noticed, but didn't push him about it, they were giving him time to settle in, he supposed.<p>

Monday was one of those days where the sun doesn't really rise properly, but you still have to get up. Such juxtaposition seems appalling in the middle of November, and Rory was already feeling down on himself when he heard the familiar clang behind him. By the time that day rolled around, Rory had been pushed into 47 different lockers 296 different times- he knew the sound. What he hadn't expected was for the burly jocks behind him to be targeting a girl half their size.

Sugar felt herself collide with the locker with full force, and she could already feel a bruise on her shoulder forming as her eyes filled with tears of humiliation and fear. She didn't beg or plead or say anything, she knew it wouldn't help. They hated her for who she was, it didn't matter how much she protested. One of the boys looked her straight in the face and muttered "freak" before the boys stormed off down the corridor, a few cheerleaders in tow.

Rory was nothing short of aghast. He'd been to a lot of schools in a lot of places, but the idea of someone attacking a girl like Sugar, who didn't even seem to fight back, was something he couldn't understand. He didn't see how anyone could be so cruel. Rory found he was fuming at the idea that anyone would want to hurt her, which seemed odd given that he didn't even know the girl. Sugar was sitting against the locker, her knees tucked under her chin. She wasn't crying, but tears were suspended in her eyes and she had a numb, vacant expression. Rory swallowed hard.

"May I?" He asked, extending his hand to help her up. Her soft brown eyes caught with his and she clasped his hand with cold fingers as she moved herself up.

"Thank you." Her voice was surprisingly strong considering how fragile she looked. "We've met before. Last week."

Rory nodded, although he wasn't sure if last week's events could exactly classify as a proper meeting. "Did this happen then, too?" He turned away to try and hide his blushing face. "Is that why you were upset?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," she almost-whispered. She shrank away from him, similarly to the way she had done before in English class. "Look, maybe you should stay out of my business." Sugar wasn't about to deny that she liked having this sort of attention directed at her, it almost never happened to her in this school unless there was an ulterior motive, some prank or other. Still, she didn't feel like putting this boy in danger, and befriending him would mean she'd eventually have to tell him. Sugar couldn't face another rejection.

"I'm not like them," Rory told her, observing the reluctant look in her eye. "I'm different." And Sugar couldn't turn that down.

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><p>Sugar had always liked the library, primarily because it was somewhere that she could be alone as she felt. Thankfully, the librarian at RHS was so delighted to have someone actually <em>visiting<em> the library; she rarely commented on the fact that Sugar had never in her life picked a book off the shelves. She led Rory to the edge of a battered couch behind the self-help section and smiled at him awkwardly. "I'm sorry," she choked out "I already feel like I'm laying my problems on you and I never asked your name, I'm Sugar Lopez-Pierce. I'm sure you already know that."

Rory grinned "Nice to meet you sugar, I'm Rory. I'm not sure what I want my second name to be yet." Sugar frowned.

"'m adopted," Rory mumbled at the floor.

"Are you ashamed of it?" Sugar asked "You shouldn't be. You don't need a surname anyway. You can be like Madonna, or Jesus or something. They never had any use for two names." Rory laughed and caught her gaze. Her eyes were a strangely warm colour, and they comforted him in a way he always thought a family home would be comforting. It was something he'd been craving for a while.

He gave her the most charming smile he could muster "I'm not ashamed of being adopted- my dads are grand! But I don't want my parents' name. They weren't very good people." Rory felt a set of soft fingers curl around his own and he froze.

Sugar laughed softly, "My parents are amazing." She sighed. "But they're also the reason that everyone hates me, I wish I could forgive them." Rory frowned at her. He had a feeling he was meant to respond with something sensitive, but he couldn't understand what she was trying to stay.

"I'm sorry, Sugar." He gave her a feeble smile. He still felt awful after seeing her hurt, but what worried him most was what she'd written down in English. Rory had been through a lot in his life and he'd knew how hard coping could be, but he had never before wished that he hadn't been born. That was even worse than wishing to die, surely.

Rory was shocked to see that Sugar was smiling "No one has told you yet, then. I have two moms."

"What?" Rory was confused "Why should that matter? I thought nobody cared about that stuff anymore. I have two dads, I never even thought of it as a problem." The selfish part of him made his stomach clench, he didn't fancy being the new subject of the students' anger. Sugar shook her head, breaking him from his thoughts.

"No, I know." She released his hand and tucked her feet up on the couch "But you don't understand. Did you ever hear about those doctors in the south who tried to make kids from two moms? Like just the mothers? They made it illegal pretty soon after they started doing it, I guess it scared people too much." Her eyes were cast down and tearful, as though she was afraid to gage his reaction. "Anyway, they made seven babies. Most of them are still in Latin America but my parents came into some money and..." She looked at him with a broken expression on her face. "Everyone here says I'm a freak." Sugar let out a shaky breath, still afraid to look at Rory. She could feel a tear rolling down her cheek and felt frustrated with herself.

Rory's heart ached at her expression. He was still trying to get his head round the situation, but he knew that wherever Sugar came from, he didn't want her to be upset. Against all odds, he managed to muster the courage to put an arm around her shoulder, and sighed in relief when she didn't pull away.

"I don't think you're a freak, how you got here doesn't change who you are. Frankly, I'd rather be made like you were from my current dads than be related to the shitty parents who never cared."

Sugar smiled; her eyes bright, even if still swollen a little. "You talk a good game, Rory. I think you should stick around."

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><p><em>Review? I'm curious.<em>


	3. Chapter 3

_**If you're reading this, I absolutely adore you for getting this far- so have a bunch of love *sends love*. I would like to announce that sadly this chapter is a little shorter than the others BUT that's because I'm planning to make the next chapter quite long and it will sort of follow on from the events in this one.**_

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><p>Sugar had officially started to get frustrated by her parents' curiosity to where she was going. At first she had rather appreciated there persistence, because at least she had something for them to bug her about, which was a rare occurrence for the girl who usually spend her weekends with the TV for company. But, after a few hours of questions about where she was going, who with, when she'd be back etc she started to realise why teenagers spent so much time complaining about their parents. It was seriously fricking irritating having them on your back.<p>

She wasn't sure why she spent so much time in front of the mirror in that evening because, as she had told her moms many times, this was _not_ a date, she was only going out with a friend and _no_ they weren't going to a party because neither of them were popular enough and so they'd opted for a movie instead so _no_ they wouldn't be back late and it wasn't even a big deal. Despite obvious lack of 'big deal', Sugar still had to make herself look immaculate because she was her mother's daughter, and she knew this kind of thing was important. She didn't want to have to worry if she looked okay for the entire night, did she? By the time she left the house, it was 6:45, which left her 45 minutes to make the half hour journey to their meeting point: there was nothing fashionable about being late.

When Sugar arrived at West 4th Street Station at 7:17, Rory was already waiting there. He looked slightly more put together than usually, which made Sugar feel a little warm inside to think he'd actually bothered to look nice for her. But then she, of course, remembered that he hadn't done it _for her_ because if he had looked nice _for her_ that she was obligated to admit that all that time she spent getting ready was _for him, _which was simply not the case. He gave her a smile and she smiled back a little too widely.

"I didn't wanna be late." The boy said, shifting awkwardly on his feet.

Sugar just smiled at him, she could tell he felt nervous. Her mom had told her never to let _anyone_ make her feel nervous, so she fought the tugging in her chest and just shrugged "Well, neither did I." She looked him up and down "You look nice."

"Don't look too skawly yourself," the boy said and Sugar frowned "I mean you look nice, sorry." He blushed. The two walked amiably up the road, and Rory made sure she was always standing a little behind her, a feeble attempt to be gentlemanly. He had a strange urge to grasp her hand; he mentally commented that this wasn't because it was this wasn't because of her, but simply because it seemed the right situation to do such a thing. It was a nice night after all; it was warm and the streets weren't too busy for a Saturday night.

The previous week had gone far better than he thought any second week at a high school should go. It didn't matter that nobody spoke to him or that people still looked at him weird whenever he walked into a room, because something about the way he had acted that day in the library meant that Sugar had chosen to stick around him. In fact, she'd decided to stride right up to him on Tuesday morning at his locker and began talking about their English homework as if they'd been friends all this time. Something about her made it so that their new friend ship didn't make him feel uncomfortable as many had done in the past. It was partly because of her ability to speak her mind. She had claimed on the first day they'd met that she had 'self diagnosed Aspergers' which should have been offensive, but he'd found it hilarious. It sounded as though she meant she always told the truth, which he didn't think should be something attributed to a disease (but went along with it anyway). He noticed she had a similar quality to the one his new dads had: she somehow made it so he didn't feel awkward or nervous like he usually did, and instead he felt confident and like he could hold a conversation properly, rather than just adding in the appropriate 'yes, no, maybe' and concentrating on not looking like a fool.

It had actually been Rory's idea for them to meet up that night. Sugar had been complaining about the fact that her moms were having friends over and that everything always got awfully loud and occasionally ended in Journey numbers being reprised and how she hated having to hide up in her room all day. Rory thought that she might have perhaps been hinting at something, so he suggested that they do something. He wasn't sure what the rules were about having friends, especially girls, over at his new house yet so he'd suggested they see a movie instead. He'd been terrified to make this proposition, of course, but it having been made Sugar only grinned excitedly and started babbling animatedly about what movie they should see. Rory had mentally congratulated himself.

The lights were on in the movie screen when the two walked in, and hardly anyone had actually arrived yet. Sugar tucked her feet up on the chair and smiled "How are things at your new house?"

Rory felt happy inside because Sugar had never asked him any of the questions that the other people at school always did like whether he missed his 'real' parents, what it was like being adopted, did he feel like he needed a mother or why he wasn't still in Ireland. "It's grand," he shrugged "They're really amazing, I really feel like they love me- which is strange."

Sugar looked troubled "Why is it strange?"

"They don't know me, Sugar." Rory replied, trying not to delve too deep- he liked Sugar far too much for her to learn of his inferiority complex. "I mean it's like from the first time they saw me they decided they were going to treat me like they'd known me all their life. In foster homes I never felt like I had a family, and now I do. They're such great people."

Sugar seemed to contemplate what he'd said for a while "I'm glad you've got a home. I mean you deserve it, you're an awesome person. My parents worked so damn hard to get me, anyone who has you should appreciate it."

Rory realised he really liked the way Sugar spoke so plainly about everything, for him it made her the easiest person in the world to talk to. "Thank you, so are you." He hesitated for a moment, "You make me sound like something special to have, though."

He was worried he'd stepped over the line saying that, that maybe he'd ruined the atmosphere, but Sugar just laughed. "Don't be so dumb, everyone is special. Even clueless, awkward guys with weird accents like you." Rory laughed, and Sugar whispered "Aspergers" as the lights dimmed. They spent the rest of the movie in a comfortable silence sitting next to each other, although Rory was still being plagued with that strange urge he had had before to take her hand again when he remembered how he fingers had felt when he'd helped her up that day. He knew very well, however that girls and him and physical contact did not go together, so he kept his hands to himself.

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><p><em><strong>Reviews would make me insanely happy, and make me more inclined to write more. I am just saying. Just pointing it out. No big deal or anything.<strong>_


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello! Sorry for the minor delay. Thank you so much for all your kind reviews! They make me so incredibly happy, like fangirl type squealing kind of happy.**** Let Sugar and Rory's not-date continue xD**

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><p>The movie they'd picked for convenience turned out, in fact, to be pretty good in the sense that it carried a fairly strong plot, had no awkward sex scenes and nobody was attractive enough in it to make one of the pair jealous. A success story, they both thought as they exited the dark room, squinting slightly. They smiled at each other to fill the mildly awkward silence until they stepped out into the warm night Sugar bit her lip<p>

"Will they have left yet," Rory asked. "Your parents' friends?"

"No..." Sugar gave him a crooked smile, throwing subtlety to the wind as they instinctively strode towards the park. "Thanks for hanging out with me," she said in a hushed voice. "People don't do it a lot."

Sugar sat down on a bench just inside the gate Rory sat down next to her, close enough to seem friendly, but not too close to invade her personal space. "It's a pleasure." Rory gave her a smile that very nearly melted her heart.

"I've always found it hard to make friends," Rory went on, "Because I'm crappy at talking to people and I get awkward and weird and, yeah..." He trailed off "Like that."

Sugar giggled at him. She realised it had been a while since anyone had been able to genuinely make her laugh, but Rory seemed to do it all the damned time, and it was usually without even trying. "I think it's endearing."

Rory blushed "I hope that's a compliment. Things were pretty difficult back at my last school, but people here seem okay."

"I used to think that, until they found out about me. I was real popular before then."

Rory could tell Sugar had tensed a little even from his gentlemanly distance. He _wanted_ to be the kind of friend who you told about this sort of stuff, about your past and the things that kept you up at night. He had regretfully admitted to himself that he already thought of Sugar as that friend to him. He felt his words flowed more freely around her, and he already valued that more than he should.

"When was that?" He asked, and heard Sugar sigh audibly.

She turned to him "It was only last year, around Christmas time." Rory thought she moved towards him a little. "I was popular back then. I had a ton of friends, everyone thought I was really cool. I could say whatever I want, because everybody believed me about all the Asperger's shit because they _had_ to believe me. I was their little queen bee." She laughed humourlessly to herself. "Anyway, as I said, I had a lot of friends. My best friend was this girl named Harmony, I don't know if you've seen her around- she's a cheerleader and they all look the same. But anyway, she was always so sweet to me back then. I mean it was all an act; she's a total bitch, but... I trusted her- I guess I trusted everyone back then- so I told her. I didn't even think it was that big a deal, she just asked me one day which of my parents I was related to and I told her both. The weird thing is she barely reacted, and it wasn't until I got to school on Monday that I realised it _was_ a big deal." Sugar's voice grew quieter, and it sounded suspiciously like she was holding in tears. Rory felt a tugging in his chest and (finally) reached out to take her hand.

She looked at him in a soulful sort of way before continuing "Anyway, at first everybody just avoided me I guess. I knew something was up. So here's the best part: I went up to Harmony on the soccer field where she was doing some cheerleader thing that involves a lot of hanging around and I said 'Hey Harmony, guess what? Everyone is ignoring me and I don't know why,' and she just looked at me and said 'Sugar, everyone's ignoring you because you're a freak'".

"But you're not a freak," Rory interrupted her with a stern tone. "How can they say that?"

Sugar shook her head "I don't even know anymore. Anyway I asked why and a couple of her friends joined her and they said some really mean things, one girl said I shouldn't even exist and, shit, when the Jesus-freak club found out they went crazy and..." She looked Rory straight in the eye, her own eyes glistening with tears. "I guess you know the rest."

"That's... Rory shifted so that they were sitting next to each other and squeezed her hand "That is bollocks. But don't listen to what any of them said, okay? They're a bunch of mogs."

Sugar laughed out loud "I love that half the time I don't know what you're saying." She had a genuine smile on her face, like she truly found him endearing and Rory secretly felt a little proud of himself for cheering her up. It occurred to him that he was leaning slightly towards her, and that they were still holding hands. There was a surprisingly non-awkward silent as Sugar slowly realised the same. "I guess I should go..."

Rory let go of her hand with a start "I'll walk you home."

Sugar chuckled "It's a half hour away!"

"So? I don't want you going home on your own."

"Okay."

Rory was used to social situations in general being awkward, and that's why he hated living in care so much: where even watching TV or taking a shower was a social situation. He was mystified by the fact that being with Sugar was far more fun than nerve wracking, even after the moment they had _accidentally_ had. The walk back was amicable, and Rory neglected to tell Sugar that it was in the exact opposite direction to his own walk home. It was dangerous, he told himself, for her to be going back on her own. It was still quite early, but it was too late to let a girl walk home alone. Or so he convinced himself. "Today was good," he said.

"Thank you." Sugar gave him a sweet smile and stopped on the corner of a dark street. She gestured with her head "My house."

It was getting darker now, but it wasn't cold and there was a streetlamp on the other side of the road. He looked at Sugar's face, which was oddly expectant, although waiting for him to say something. "You're welcome," he told her "I... I guess I'll see you in school?" He felt as though something was missing, like there was something he really wanted to tell her, but couldn't think what.

"See you in school, Rory." She started to walk off, an ethereal looking light around her which actually came from a streetlamp.

Rory had reached the end of the little road on his way home before he turned around. "Sugar!" he shouted out to the girl in the distance, running towards her in what he thought must be the least heroic fashion possible. "Do you think you'd go out with me some day? Like, you know, on a date. Maybe? You don't have to say yes."

Sugar stood smiling at him "Finally! I thought you'd chickened out there."

Rory frowned "You what?"

"Yes," Sugar said sincerely "Yes, I will."

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><p><strong>Please let me know what you think! If there's anything you would <em>like<em> to happen, feel free to suggest it too!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! First of all,. I'd like to apologise profusely for the delay, which was not due to lack of trying but rather to the holiday season, a sudden onset of social life and a _lot_ of reading I have to do for school. I expect to be updating this again before Christmas, along with possibly attempting a Sugary Christmas one shot if you're lucky. Do review if you have time!**

**ps. If you want to Tumblr me, I'm RapidlyBecomingObsessed and I'd love a chat :D **

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><p>Rory was having an intense Angry Birds session on his the iPhone his fathers had unnecessarily bought him in their corner of the English class when Sugar ransacked him. He was just contemplating the fact that he should probably feel sorry for all the weird green pigs because, after all, they hadn't actually done anything to hurt him when The Complete Works of Shakespeare landed in front of him with an accusatory thump.<p>

"Rory," she always addressed him as though his name held some kind of mysterious secret.

He smiled "Sugar."

"Rory," she repeated. "Rory, I'm failing English."

"Are you?" He was surprised, Sugar always had a way with words, or so he thought. Maybe her words just had a particularly good affect on him.

"Yes." Sugar looked at him very sincerely. "Yes I am failing English. I am failing a class. Rory, I need your help."

"Well..." Sugar looked him expectantly as he spoke and he couldn't help but grin. "Well I'm sure my dads wouldn't mind a study session taking place under their roof."

Before he knew it, his lap was full of 100lbs of teenage girl and he was being strangled by the arms around his neck. "My hero!" Sugar yelled and sat back in her seat, digging around for pens as though her behaviour were completely customary. Rory thanked his lucky charms once again that things weren't awkward between them as he thought they should have been. They weren't dating -they hadn't been on the actually _date_ yet- but being friends with Sugar came just as easily as it had before, it felt natural: like breathing or falling asleep.

The lesson that followed was a dull affair, and Sugar and Rory used the time wisely in an intensive noughts and crosses tournament followed by a game of hangman. Sugar's word was L E P R E C H A U N and Rory's was A S P E R G E R S. The lesson ended in them both getting shouted at for throwing paper balls at each other, and an essay being set on "To what extent does Romeo present being in love to be a pleasant feeling?" Sugar sighed and glued her head to the table.

Rory stuck a skinny elbow into her side "Don't worry y'self," he said with humour in his voice "We'll work on it tonight."

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><p>Rory wasn't sure how he'd expected his parents to react when he told them he was having a girl over to study ("study" was something his fathers insisted on putting "inverted commas" on "every time they said it" and it drove him insane). He had not, however, expected to have to answer so many questions. He attempted to tell them as little as possible- only her name, roughly where she lived and that she was in their English class. He told them that, yes, they genuinely did plan on studying and that he'd rather they didn't interrupt because he genuinely had to get his essay written up on time. Kurt and Blaine were still grinning at him when the doorbell rang, and Blaine jumped up with a shout of "I'll get it!" to Rory's dismay.<p>

Sugar was standing with her usual confident demeanour on the doorstep when the door was answered. She was a little taken aback when she saw that it was one of Rory's parents who had answered, but he had a smile on his face and a warm look in his eye, so she smiled back at him and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Sugar."

A second man, impeccably dressed for a weekday night came up behind the first and held a hand out to her "Step inside, Sugar." He looked as though he were trying to stifle a giggle.

Rory ran in between them looking flustered and blushing slightly "Sorry about them," he grabbed her by the hand "We'll be upstairs." He gave his parents a stern look that he hoped warned them against intrusions.

Blaine wrapped an arm round his husbands' shoulders and they stood grinning childishly, a united front against Rory's dignity (they were very much getting the hang of embarrassing parenting for a couple so young). They cried out "Door open, kids!" in unison as Rory led Sugar upstairs, palm to his forehead.

Rory was slowly losing the will to live when he finally made it to the bedroom, closing the door firmly against instruction. "I'm sorry about them," he turned to Sugar "I don't think the parenting novelty has quite worn off yet."

Sugar, in contrast to himself, looked entirely unphased "It's no problem," she told him with a sweet smile that made Rory feel a little better.

The two sat next to each other on the bed, propped up by a luxurious pillow pile, rummaging through notes.

"I just don't understand what they're saying half the time," Sugar complained "It's like having a conversation with you."

Rory elbowed her gently in the stomach, but smiled "It can't possibly be as bad as me."

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><p>Sugar had a frown on her face that Rory would have laughed at had he not feared for his life "I don't think it's meant to be pleasant. I don't think love <em>is<em> pleasant, and Romeo doesn't go about pretending that it is." She paused to look Rory directly in the eye "Don't you agree?"

"It can seem that way," Rory thought hard "But I think Shakespeare makes it seem like it was almost worth it- dying and everything. I think, given the chance, they'd both do it all again. It's better than not having met each other at all." He was getting very close to extreme cheesiness territory, but at this point he wasn't sure he cared. They'd been discussing the matter for a long time considering it was only a homework question. Neither was aware before that night that they'd cared so much about the topic, especially seeing as the two of them hardly ever paid attention in English due to the other being a distraction.

"Love is..." Sugar perused her textbook "A madness most discreet/A choking gall- See? He doesn't make it look like a nice thing at all."

To her surprised, Rory laughed. "That is so typical of you, you missed out all the sentences about how great it was 'smoke raised with fume of sighs' and all that. You just went straight to the negative."

Sugar looked disappointed "None of that made any sense to me, so I skipped it. It's all pretentious anyway." Rory shifted almost imperceptibly closer to her.

"I wouldn't expect any less of you, Sugar Lopez Pierce."

"You sound impressed."

"I am impressed." He said with earnest. "Everyone else says Romeo and Juliet is this amazingly romantic story, and you go ahead and you throw convention to the wind and say the opposite. That's what I like about you."

"I'm a generally unconventional person." Sugar said plainly, with a tone of hurt somewhere in her voice.

"I'm not talking about... That." Rory protested "I'm just talking about your personality here. You don't listen to what anyone else tries to tell you. They all walk around agreeing with each other all the time and pretending we're all the same but actually we're all way too different- that's why we feel lonely all the time."

Sugar hesitated "I didn't know you felt lonely all the time."

"I don't feel lonely when I'm with you," he said without thinking.

To his relief, Sugar smiled to herself "Good, I wouldn't want you to."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello! Sorry for the slight delay- this chapter is extra lengthy to make up for it.**

**I just need to clear a few things up in response to some questions I've been getting:**

**1. No one is going to be travelling time in this fic I'm afraid. While the Back To The Future thing is fun, it is not necessary for this particular story and I doubt I'll put it in unless I have a sudden change of heart!**

**2. The two parental units will meet in the future. They are not currently aware that they live in the same city, as they lost touch after high school.**

**3. Our Harmony is sort of based on the Harmony that we know- although I'm unsure how much I'm going to be developing on her character.**

**I'd really love to know how you think this turned out, so leave me a review if you can find the time!**

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><p>Rory swallowed his anxiety pills eagerly that Saturday morning. His fathers both sat across from him drinking out of coffee mugs that one could say bore more resemblance to buckets than to cups. The two adults seemed to reminiscing over their high school days, and Rory chose not to interrupt, silently spooning Apple Jacks into his mouth until he was addressed.<p>

"So Rory," Kurt leant over the table, resting his head in his hands "What is our pristine son going to do today?"

"More studying?" Blaine suggested with a smirk on his face "Will we be seeing your friend again?"

Rory tried to keep his face stern, but he couldn't help the smile that twitched at the sides of his mouth "You won't be seeing her," he left a dramatic pause "But I will."

Kurt gave an unnecessary squeal of excitement, and Blaine grinned "Do tell."

"I have a date."

Kurt clapped his hands together and Blaine giggled childishly. The latter recovered first from the shock, or pride, or whatever it was that the two seemed to be exhibiting and spoke up "Where to?"

"Starbucks," Rory directed his answer at his cereal bowl.

"You know, we used to go on coffee dates an awful lot." Kurt winked at him.

"That we did," Blaine said with a smile, and grinned "That worked out pretty well."

Rory looked up, and spoke as politely as he could "No offense guys, but I'm not sure I really want your input on this." To their credit, neither of them were offended, and their faces lit up with acknowledgment.

"Right," Kurt got up and started clearing up the breakfast things "Privacy! Independence! Respect!" He took off towards the kitchen sink.

"Absolutely," Blaine nodded vigorously but lingered behind to whisper in a low voice "You will let us know how it goes, right?"

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><p>Surprisingly enough, Sugar was actually nervous. She rarely admitted to ever doing anything wrong, so the fear of making a mistake was something that was completely new to her. She'd been on dates before, and she'd never felt like this! Then again, she'd never felt anything at all before. The difference this time was that she <em>wasn't<em> indifferent; she actually had hopes. The fact that wanting things to go well made this sort of thing harder, she thought, was completely unfair. She was testing out outfits when her one of her mothers appeared in the open doorway.

"Qué mamá?" She continued to search her wardrobe, deciding that she definitely needed to go shopping because she had _nothing_ suitable and really ought to give up and-

"I could sense your panic from the other side of the house." Santana stepped into the room and sat down on the bed "What's going on?"

With a sigh, Sugar admitted defeat "I'm going on a date."

Her mother frowned, "So what's all the frantic running around for?"

"You don't get it!" Sugar complained. Honestly, of all the times her mother could choose to become a calm and well-mannered person, did now have to be it? "I actually _like_ him and I don't want to screw it up!"

Santana rolled her eyes in a way that would make anyone question their sentiment. "He asked you, I'm guessing?"

Sugar glared at the floor with resentment "Yes."

"Well then," Sugar felt comforting arms wrap around her from behind, and her mother calmed her with a squeeze "He must like you as you are. So I suggest you throw on a pair of sweatpants and forget all this."

Sugar sighed, with relief this time, and relaxed a bit. "How are you so good at this?"

Santana just laughed "You're exactly like your mom, and I've been dealing with her for years."

"But you love it!" Sugar grinned.

"Yeah," Santana made her way back out into the hallway. "Yeah, I do."

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><p>Thankfully, by the time 4 o'clock rolled around both the teenagers had had enough time to calm down. Sugar, although she had rejected the sweatpants idea was dressed simply yet tastefully and had a smile on her face already when she saw Rory waiting outside the coffee shop with his hands in his pockets, wearing a vacant expression. Sugar approached him with a nervous smile and a "Hey."<p>

"Hey Sugar, what's the crack?"

"The what?"

"The… How are you?"

Sugar laughed to herself "I'm on a date with a boy who doesn't speak English properly and I'm suffering from caffeine withdrawal," she gave Rory a fleeting hug "Sorry- Asperger's."

"At least one of those can be fixed!" Rory opened the door for her, trying to suppress the nerves that were consuming him. The two seemed to spend more time together than they did apart, and they had grown comfortable around each other for the most part, but Rory could feel something different this time. It was partly that he felt something was expected of him, but also because he'd never been a date before, and he could also sense something inherent in the atmosphere- a way in which this just _was_ different. Rory ordered a drip coffee, and Sugar ordered some sort of incomprehensible frozen coffee concoction for which he insisted on paying for. She didn't put up much of a fight.

"So how are you settling in with your parents?" Sugar spoke animatedly, and started sipping from her straw and looking at him expectantly.

Rory shrugged "Pretty well. Better than it's ever gone before- they're amazing." And they were. "I mean they drive me insane sometimes, but I know they mean well. And they're so close to one another- it's kind of touching. They love each other. They're just really loving people, you know? The other foster homes I've been in didn't have a lot of love in them to begin with, so there wasn't enough to go around when it came to me. Kurt and Blaine are completely different, they seem to have everything to give.

"Have you had a lot of foster homes?" Sugar found herself feeling almost over-confident that day; she supposed she must be compensating for something. "Sorry, you don't have to answer that. I speak my mind a lot."

"No, no it's fine. I like that you do that, but… Well, I don't really want to talk about the foster homes. There were four of them and they didn't work out. The parents didn't do anything wrong I don't think, it was me."

"What was you?"

"I was difficult to look after. I didn't think of them as my parents- so they didn't see me as a son. They always told the social workers that I was distant and moody and that I wasn't cooperating and I know they were right. I couldn't help it. I guess I've always just been difficult to care about."

"You're not difficult to care about." Sugar told him firmly, and he smiled because he knew she meant it. She didn't lie about those sorts of things; she just told everyone how it was and expected them to go along with it.

"Right, thank you. Anyway, I guess I've had issues with trusting people, especially parents since I was a young lad, a baby really. They left me behind, Sugar."

"What do you mean?" Sugar had a genuine frown on her face.

"I mean they left me. I was young, really young- I don't remember it properly really. But for whatever reason they decided they couldn't cope with me anymore. They left me in the bath tub." He paused, swallowed hard, and added "In my first care home they used to call me the bathroom baby."

"That's awful!" Sugar exclaimed, loud enough to turn heads "Why would anyone do that?"

"You know as well as I do that some people are impossible to understand." Rory gave her a sad smile.

"Right…" There was an awkward pause, and a look fell upon Rory's face that she'd never seen before, and it was a look that absolutely broke her heart. He looked so… Lost. Not even sad, just deeply, deeply confused and disheartened. Without really thinking, she got up and moved from across the table to sit next to Rory on the sofa. She took his hand "You shouldn't blame yourself." She spoke sincerely "I can tell that you blame yourself. Don't do it."

Her insistent tone made Rory laugh despite himself, and he took hold of her hand "I try not to; I just find it all hard to understand. I wish I could ask them why they left me, whether there's something wrong with me."

Sugar felt her heart swell up in her chest, because he had this all _wrong! _She didn't have the answers, she didn't know why his parents had chosen to leave him behind or why he hadn't been able to settle in anywhere until now, but she was absolutely sure that there was nothing at all wrong with this boy. In fact, he was one of the best people she'd ever met. He'd never even thought to judge her, he made her feel comfortable, made her feel pretty and important and special. He suddenly looked smaller, sitting next to her with sad eyes, and she did something she may not have dared do before- she kissed him.

It was a little awkward at first, but then Rory put a hand on her waist and pulled her in closer and she was able to rest her hands around his shoulders. The kiss was somewhat chaste, but meaningful and, like everything they did together, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Rory noticed that she must use vanilla scented perfume, and Sugar realised that his hair was particularly soft, and then it was over. Both their eyes were brighter and more hopeful when they pulled away.

"There is _nothing_ wrong with you." Sugar looked at him sternly to remind him that she was _informing_ him of this, and that there was no room for argument.

Rory put an arm around her shoulders and smiled "Alright."

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><p><strong>Review?<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**So, I guess I owe an apology. School, as always, is a bitch and I'm just a generally busy person nowadays. However, I shall definitely come back with a vengeance and I plan to update a lot more frequently in the foreseeable future! I hope you enjoy this chapter. It cuts off at a bit of weird point, but I'm really bad at writing small talk and I kinda wanted to spare you that!**

"My parents want to meet you."

Sugar and Rory were sitting on their park bench in Washington Square. Having gorged themselves on peanut butter and jelly, they had decided that their picnic mat was best used as a blanket to defend them from the chill that had started to accumulate in the late afternoon. They hadn't talked about anything in particular since they'd sat down, choosing to make up life stories for passers by instead. Rory would make up dramatic adventure stories, and Sugar would condemn them to eternal misery in some form or other. While an onlooker would have found it a mundane way to pass the time, they each found the other's sentiments disproportionately interesting. Hearing this, however, Rory felt his heart begin to speed up:

"They do?" His eyes were wide, and he had a look of anguish on his face.

Sugar gave a lively laugh "You look terrified."

"I'm not good with parents!" Rory protested, trying to keep a straight face as Sugar laughed in his face. "I'm not used to them, am I?"

Sugar gave him a sympathetic look and spoke plainly "I'm a qualified misanthrope, you don't get more sceptical than me, if you can win me over you can do the same for them." Rory began to feel relieved until Sugar gave him a mischievous smile before adding "I should warn you, my mamá grew up in Lima Heights.

"Is there anything that happens in Lima Heights I ought to know about?" Rory questioned, raising one eyebrow.

"Cosas malas," Sugar half-whispered, a sparkle in her eye, before giggling at Rory's petrified expression. "You'll be fine."

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><p>Sugar came home from school exhausted on the Friday afternoon. Having suddenly acquired someone with which she wanted to spend all her time, keeping up with schoolwork was proving difficult, and her parents seemed to be keeping a particularly close eye. Santana was still at work, dealing with to some complex court case which had taken her weeks of work to build up. Brittany, being a Kindergarten teacher, had shorter days, and she was sitting at the kitchen table with knitting needles in her thin fingers, knitting a scarf that had managed to become about twice as wide in the middle as it had been at the start. Sugar smiled fondly, choosing not to say anything about said scarf, and kissed her mother on the cheek instead to announce her presence. Brittany gave her a fairly absent smile, deep in concentration "Hey mom," Sugar began meddling with coffee mugs, brewing up something that was far more coffee than it was water, before sitting down beside the blonde woman. "How was your day?"<p>

Brittany looked up "It was great! We made macaroni necklaces."

Sugar grinned at the collective pronoun, knowing that her mom had probably had just as much fun as the kids did. In all her life, Sugar had never met someone so optimistic, so absolutely _enthusiastic_ as her mom- the only person Sugar had ever met for whom the glass was always at least _two thirds _full. "Sounds awesome."

"Is your boyfriend coming over tonight?" Brittany asked, never having been one to exercise restraint.

Sugar blushed "Yes, yes he said he'd come. But he doesn't call himself by boyfriend, at least he hasn't to me- so you need to, like, _not_ talk about that. And maybe hold back on the macaroni necklaces too." She felt a little guilty for that last comment.

"I get it," her mom winked at her. "Santana and I spent about 4 years being not-quite-girlfriends before we actually got together."

"Seriously?" Sugar was shocked. Until that moment, she'd never thought of her parents ever being separate entities at all. They just worked so well together- two halves of a whole.

"Yep, things were harder back then I guess. But it doesn't mean we didn't love each other, it was the opposite- we loved each other more than any high school couple should. It was scary for both of us, but we got older and wiser and... It started to make more sense." She had a distant smile on her face, like she was in the midst of a happy daydream. "I lit the fire for you in the living room so it'd be warm when you got home."

Sugar's eyes widened "Mamá would freak out! You're not supposed to touch that thing, mom."

"What your mamá doesn't know won't hurt her- you can say it was you." Brittany winked at her, a grin on her face. "Now go make yourself look nice for your almost-boyfriend or watch TV or something, I want to finish this scarf- it's one of the kid's birthday tomorrow."

Sugar nodded, making her way to the (gloriously toasty) living room, thanking an ambiguous deity -as she did every day- that she had one of the smartest women in the world for a parent.

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><p>Rory came home to find both his parents sitting at on their enormous leather couch and watching America's Next Top Model reruns. Rory swallowed any witty comments about stereotype and delved into the bowl of popcorn that rested on Blaine's lap. "Affernon," he mumbled with his mouth full up.<p>

Kurt gave him a disapproving look, and Blaine threw popcorn in his ear. "Hello, my dapper young son, how's the etiquette coming along?"

"It perhaps requires some improvement," Kurt said in a stern voice, although his eyes were humorous and his face was kind.

"Think you guys could help me out by tonight? I have to go to Sugar's parents," Rory gave them a wide-eyed look of disdain, which only deepened as he watch the grins spread across his fathers' faces "Please don't say it."

The men looked at each other knowingly "Well," Kurt said "I guess you should ask Blaine, he's the private school boy!"

Blaine gave a mock gasp of appal "So are you!"

"For one semester!"

"That counts!"

"Guys?" Rory cut in; too nervous for the usual banter that was the household norm. "Okay for starters, Blaine, I've seen the pictures. Hair gel stocks must have been proper high is all I'm saying. But that's not the point." He cleared his throat "The point is that I'm freaking out because I have never met actual normal parents before and I have to act like an eligible bachelor and I have nothing to say and I don't know how to act and Lima Heights and-"

"Lima Heights?" Kurt looked bewildered at hearing the name of his home town come out of Rory's mouth "What about Lima Heights?"

Rory stared at them despairingly "I have no idea! Sugar said something about it. She speaks Spanish- it's weird. I should have learned Spanish, Gaelic isn't even used here!"

Kurt raised his eyebrow, and Blaine turned round to look him in the eye questioningly "You think?" Blaine whispered to him, with no need to finish the sentence "It can't be."

"GUYS?" Rory jumped off the sofa in frustration "Still freaking out over here!"

With one last fleeting look of disbelief mixed with confusion, Kurt hopped up to join him "I'll do clothes." His generosity was met with a look for true horror from Rory so he added "Blaine can moderate."

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><p>The doorbell rang at precisely 7:58pm which, Rory being due at 8 (<em>after<em> dinner because this wasn't a formal occasion, and also because Santana had to work late on her case), made Sugar's moms raise their eyebrows in approval. "Well, he's punctual." Santana winked at Sugar, and before her daughter could stop her she had ran down the hallway to let Rory in. Her eyes fell upon the boy who was, although perhaps not so conventionally good looking, definitely attractive in his own way- especially as he was dressed like a Vogue Homme magazine cover.

"Santana?" he asked in a strong Irish accent. "I'm Rory, just Rory for now, it's nice to meet you."

A blonde rushed past before Santana could respond, bringing a shocked Rory into a tight hug "Nice to meet you, Rory, my name is Brittany Lopez-Pierce, please come in! I've made cookies, do you like cookies?" Rory, deciding he liked this woman a lot, followed her inside to a living room with a large and lavish fireplace, with promised cookies resting on a coffee table and Sugar (whom he was relieved to notice had also changed her clothing) sitting on the couch with her knees pulled up against her chest. She gave a genuine smile when she saw him coming, and jumped up to wrap her arms around him

"Thanks for coming over." She spoke quietly enough for her parents to look at each other with amused expressions before taking their places on the couch.

"So Rory-just-Rory," Santana smiled at him, which did little to diffuse the anxiety that was building up inside him under the Latina woman's close eye. "You're from Ireland?"

"Yes, I only got here a few months ago when my foster family who'd moved me out to Chicago decided to ditch me. The services are better, or so I'm told." He felt bad about bringing up his bumpy ride of a past, but he knew the subject would come up eventually.

"I'm sorry," Brittany said, a look of genuine melancholy in her eyes.

"That's alright, I'm happy now." Rory have his most earnest smile, with a sideways glance at Sugar for reassurance. "My new fathers are fantastic."

"You have two dads?" Santana asked, "That's awesome! Sugar can get her male influence from your end." She looked as though she was joking, although Rory wasn't quite certain.

"Yeah, Kurt and Blaine, they're-" he stopped talking when Brittany and Santana's heads snapped round to look at each other.

"Hold up." Santana held up her hand, as if to silence him although he hadn't been talking. Rory looked at Sugar for an explanation only to receive an expression bearing an equal amount of confusion to his own.

"Your parents are Kurt and Blaine? Short dude with the curly hair and a guy whose voice never quite broke?"

Rory dismissed the slightly crude description of his parents, having received fair warning from Sugar that Santana was a generally straight-talking person ('She always said the only straight she is is straight up bitch') "You know them?"

"We went to high school together!" Exclaimed an excited Brittany, while Santana sat wide eyed, looking both shocked and amused. "They live in New York now?"

Rory didn't answer her, he was too busy staring at Sugar in amazement. Words like 'fate' and 'destiny' started popping into his head- words that shouldn't be in a teenage boy's vocabulary (of that he was sure). 'Coincidence' and 'chance' were much better valued in society, and more importantly sounded far less girly. Eventually he cleared his throat "Erm, yes. West Village."

Brittany looked ecstatic, and Santana looked a little like she could burst out laughing.

"This," Santana began

"Is AWESOME!" Brittany finished off her sentence for her, earning an expression of true affection from her wife. "We should totally meet up! I'd love to see them again. It wouldn't be weird, would it?" She glanced at Santana, apparently seeking approval.

"No way, Britt." Santana smiled, we should totally get together sometime. I miss those guys."

And so it was agreed.

**I hope you enjoyed! Reviews always very very very welcome!**

**Next chapter shall appear very soon (possibly even tomorrow!). Our sets of parents won't actually be united until chapter 8, the next chapter takes a little look into Sugar and Rory's school life and has more about their relationship- so come back for that if you so wish! :D**


	8. Chapter 8

**_I'm very tired. I hope this doesn't suck._**

**Sorry for the long time between updates! I have school etc.**

**It's also quite short, but I shall try and get chapter 9 out as quickly as I possibly can and I don't think that is going to be very long.**

**I guess I should put a warning in for the bit of cheesy Klaine that I shoved at the end of this chapter. It's very brief, but could annoy the hell out of a Klaine-hater, so there you go.**

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><p>Rory had no idea how he had not yet managed to flunk English. The once awkward silence that had resounded between them after Rory's first day had developed into perpetual playfighting, which had then turned into holding hands, cliché note-passing and giggling to each other. The classes had begun to feel like the highlight of his week, despite the fact that he never learned anything. He'd been staring at the clock all day, waiting for the final period English class. He hadn't seen Sugar since he'd spoken to her parents, and he was desperate to gossip about what they both knew about their parents' past and piece something together. Rory was usually late to English, as he had to stop at his locker several times a day due to his preference not to have to carry heavy books around (or, as Sugar called it, laziness) and so he realised straight away when Sugar hadn't turned up. He absent-mindedly took his books out, not listening to a word that the teacher was saying and gazing around nervously, waiting for Sugar to walk in.<p>

Rory could feel his heart beating in his throat by the time the bell rang signifying the end of the day. He knew that something had to be up, Sugar didn't skive classes. She may not be a perfect student, but she at least showed up to every class. She wasn't sick, he also knew she wasn't sick, he'd seen her the previous day and she'd been fine. Something had to be wrong. His mind went back to the first day he had seen her, when she'd been violently shoved into that locker. She'd looked so scared and hurt that day. Rory's heart was beating through his chest by the time he reached the entrance to the library. Luckily, he knew exactly where to look.

He found her sitting on the same couch where they'd first had a real conversation, right behind the self help section. She was sitting with a notepad, doodling quietly and she looked so peaceful he almost didn't want to disturb her.

"Sugar?"

The notebook slammed shut, and Sugar looked up in surprise, her eyes wide. On seeing who it was, she relaxed a little, but Rory could tell she was still wary.

"You found me." She stated. Looking him straight in a way that made Rory feel like he was the one who was being confronted.

"You didn't show up to English?" Rory said, with obvious panic in his voice. "Did something happen?"

Sugar shrugged nonchalantly "No, I'm fine. You worry too much." She gave him a sweet smile and Rory felt a rush of relief flood over him. Of course, he was overreacting. Sugar was a big girl, she could defend herself. He smiled back at her and sat down, watching her draw in a comfortable silence. Comfortable, at least, until he noticed the bruise forming on her upper arm and down her shoulder. An icy cold fist closed around his heart.

"Sugar?"

"Mhm?" Sugar wasn't paying any attention to him, she didn't look up. Rory reached out his hand slowly to run his fingers over her purpling shoulder and she flinched away from him, leaping to her feet with a high pitched noise of protest.

"Don't!" She covered up the bruising with her hand, as if she could pretend he hadn't seen anything. Rory saw tears begin to tell up in her eyes as she turned her head away.

"What's happened to you?"

Sugar wanted to tell him. She wanted to cry to him and have him wrap his arms around her and shush her and tell her that everything was alright. But everything wasn't alright, and she wasn't a damsel in distress and Rory had his own problems.

"Fight with a door." Sugar said bluntly. "Door won." Her choked voice and the tear running down her cheek gave her away, however much she tried to hide it and Rory came and stood next to her, acting with caution.

"It looks bad, does it hurt?"

Sugar felt her heart melt a little "It doesn't hurt, not really." He saw the worried look in his eyes and sighed with surrender, "It was the same guys who you saw a few weeks back, they like to knock me around between classes."

Rory had seen his fair share of violence, he'd grown up in children's homes after all and he'd received the odd black eye himself, even been the cause of a couple. He stilled failed to understand, however, how anyone could want to hurt someone like Sugar because of some stupid prejudice.

"Harmony was watching," Sugar continued. "She didn't join- but she was watching. God, I hate her now." She could feel a headache throbbing at the inside of her skull from holding her tears back and she gave in to Rory's comforting presence, pulling him into a hug and burying her head in his shoulder. "I wish I wasn't like this."

Rory was slightly taken aback by the gesture, considering that Sugar had flinched away from him not two minutes ago, but he happily wrapped his armed around her and squeezed tight. "I think you're perfect like this," he said with conviction "Don't let them convince you otherwise."

Sugar sniffed a little and gave him a meek smile, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek "Take me home?"

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><p>Blaine was slaving over the stove when Rory got home, so he settled beside his other father, who was pouring over a magazine and frantically scribbling notes. "Can Chloe Moretz wait for five minutes?" Rory asked sheepishly, his father at work was rather intimidating.<p>

"Chloe?" Kurt looked up at him with a furrowed brow "Is she still cool?" He cleared a pile of magazines out the way so that Rory could sit down next to him "Last time I shot _Chloe_ she hadn't had kids yet."

Rory shrugged "She's hot."

"Good enough!" Kurt exclaimed, scribbling something down in his notebook "Now, what's up?"

Rory suddenly felt a pang of guilt. It wasn't that he didn't trust his father, but he knew very well that Sugar would hate for her secrets to be passed on so easily. He couldn't help it, though. His thoughts were so mixed up. He was used to confusion, he was used to feeling lost, but the tug that he could feel on his heart had a separate entity. This feeling was nothing to do with himself, it was all for Sugar. All he could think about was finding ways to protect her, to help her, to keep her safe and put a stop to all the things that were making her cry and he knew he'd happily endure all the knocks she had taken if it meant that she didn't have to. The thought scared him. This entire feeling scared him to death.

"It's about Sugar."

"Uh oh. Stop right there. I'm not good with girls. Ask Blaine, he went on a date once with a girl. Granted it was a revival of Love Story, but still a date, right?"

"It's not that kind of problem," Rory shuffled nervously. "It's a school thing. There are some guys, they're kinda ganging up on her."

Kurt looked up at him, and Rory saw an emotion he wasn't familiar with flash across his face "Oh." Kurt fell quiet, and Rory began to worry that he'd said something wrong. Maybe Kurt didn't want him to open up like this just yet? He wasn't his real father, and he had to work hard enough as it was without Rory coming to him with problems he couldn't do anything about.

"Is she gay?"

Rory raised an eyebrow "No."

"How do you know?"

"She's my girlfriend!"

"Since when?"

"Since she is!"

"Okay..." Kurt looked troubled. "I'm sorry I just... I have experience in that area. I used to get knocked around a lot when I was your age and it didn't end well. I don't want that to happen to her- especially since she's Brittany and Santana's kid. They don't deserve it."

"People don't care so much as they used to," Rory reminded him, and Kurt felt joyous for a moment, thankful that he could finally bring up his son in a world where he could be whoever he wanted "At least not around here. Look, I can't tell you why is, alright? She's really sensitive about it and I can't have her mad at me. You should see her when she's mad at people, it's terrifying."

"Sounds like her mother's daughter," Kurt said with a sparkle in his eye as he recounted memories of Santana. Her cutting insults were something he never thought he would miss, but then again he didn't think he'd ever miss high school. There was something about having a teenager of his own that made him realise how valuable a time it was. High school was when he had found himself. He'd hated himself at first, of course- everybody does, but he had accepted himself eventually. He'd met the love of his life, made wonderful friends. Though he would never volunteer to go back to those days, he was glad they'd happened.

"They're hurting her." A small voice interrupted Kurt's reminiscing. He was taken aback

"Physically?" He asked, panic setting in. A nod. "How badly?

Rory swallowed "I don't know." He felt his father put an arm around his shoulders, and leaned into the comfort of a parent for the first time in his life. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Just look out for her." Blaine's voice sounded from the doorway, making the other two look up. "Be there for her, talk to her, care for her and-" he kissed his husband's cheek and gave them both a sad look "Never tell her to confront them. Some people don't have the choice when it comes to being the victim, but that doesn't mean they have to run."

The next day Sugar found a note in her locker.

_S-_

_Courage._

_-R x_


	9. Chapter 9

**READ ME: I'm sorry for the delay again! It's all the usual stuff like school and boring crap that isn't as important as Sugary but has to take priority anyway *le sigh*.**

**Anyway, I have a confession to make. I MADE THIS ANGSTY. It's all angsty and crey-y and there isn't even any cuddles in it or anything and I'M REALLY SORRY. I promise promise _promise_ that things will get better. There is far more fluff to come, the parents _will_ be reunited and Sugar and Rory are going to live happily ever after, dammit! I just need to do this okay?**

**Thank you so much for your feedback! It makes me so happy! :D Please review to let me know what you think, I haven't really written anything like this before :)**

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><p>At least in relation to other girls her age, Sugar spent a pretty normal amount of time in front of the mirror. She had one in her locker, she scrutinised herself every time she went to the bathroom, and she gave herself a once over whenever she went out (perhaps a twice-over if Rory is involved). But here, as she stood staring in her underwear, she had never wanted to smash anything more in her life. She had a harsh line of purple bruising over her left arm from being thrown against a locker, her hip was yellow from when she'd fallen over into a wall after a particularly hard shove and, worst of all a small gash just beneath her hairline from the previous day.<p>

She had been happy that day and, although such a mood had become slightly more frequent recently, it was still a pretty rare thing to be in a school hallway. The note in her locker seemed to have worked some kind of magic spell. It was just a word, and a hopelessly cheesy one at that. But it didn't feel like a word to Sugar, it felt like a promise. A promise of protection if she ever needed it, a promise that she would have a shoulder to cry on, and maybe even an underlying suggestion that one day, if they worked through it slowly, they could figure this all out and stop it. The following day she had said nothing to Rory, only giving him a knowing smile, to which he replied with a nod of understanding, or was it reassurance? He was incredibly hard to understand sometimes, even when he wasn't talking. It had only been during the free period in which Rory had to do a catch up class that things had started to go downhill. Harmony had approached her with ardency- head held high, eyes narrowed and a self righteous snarl across her red-tinted lips.

"What the hell are you smiling about?" The dark haired girl said to her, an entourage quickly becoming apparent behind her. "Did you find a way to become normal? Although, I'm pretty sure that's impossible for you." She giggled delightedly, as though she had said something hilarious. "Maybe it's that boy you've been hanging out with; does he know your secret?"

"He doesn't care." Sugar muttered, with far less conviction that she had planned. "Just go away."

A boy behind her cut in "Maybe that's because he's a freak like you."

"Cute." Harmony added with the same provocative smile on her face which made Sugar want to stab her in the eye.

"Don't talk that way about him!" Sugar could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. They insulted her all the time, but there was something so much worse about them saying those things about Rory- the selfless boy with the honest eyes. The first person to see her as she really was, and the only person to ever like her for _her._ "You walk around like you're so perfect! There's nothing special about you! One of your parents isn't even related to you! Do you even know if they love you?" She stepped closer to Harmony, staring into her eyes. The rage was giving her confidence. "I sure wouldn't. I'd hate to be stuck with some stupid brat because my wife was too much of a damn closet case to marry right the first time."

Harmony remained extremely calm in contrast to Sugar with her heavy breathing and flushed complexion. "Shut up." She breathed deeply. "Don't ever say that again. Just because your genetics are screwed up doesn't give you the right to act like some stupid retard."

It was the last words that made her do it. She'd heard them used to many times to describe her mother, to shoot her down even though she was the kindest woman Sugar had ever met. She couldn't stand those words, they disgusted her. Before she knew what she was doing she had spun Harmony round and slammed her against the painted brick wall with a loud thump that would have all of Lima Heights proud. The silence that resounded was borderline revolutionary, so Sugar thought. That was Harmony's boyfriend, Rick St. James , stepped forward and pushed her with what seemed like minimal effort and she heard a crack as she was knocked off her feet, landing somewhere near the wall. There was a throbbing in her head and she was disorientated. The dizziness frightened her, she was scared that any minute now they would be back to hurt her, with fists or feet or words. A laugh from somewhere a distance down the corridor told her that she needn't worry; they hadn't even cared enough to finish the job off.

The mirror didn't do much to hide the severity of her bruising, and nor did it do her any favours when she pushed her hair back with a hiss to reveal the cut on her head. It hadn't bled all that much, and there was no dizziness or pain left over other than a throbbing headache at the front of her skull. But the marks didn't lie. With all the injuries together like this, painted onto her as though she were developed in that lab in order to be a canvas rather than a daughter, Sugar had to admit that she looked a mess. As usual with these things, the thought of her parents' reaction stopped her from telling them. She could imagine Brittany's face falling, looking so sad like she always did when she was exposed to the cruelties of the world which she had never been able to understand. She had to admit she was unsure how her other mom would react. She could imagine her being angry, but she couldn't be confident that the anger would be directed at her attackers. What if Santana was angry at her? What if she told Sugar that she ought to have done a better job of standing up for herself? What if that was true? Sugar's breathing quickened as she mulled over the various scenarios and she shivered, deciding for the hundredth time that this was all better off kept a secret.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello! So., canon has been very exciting recently, has it not?**

**However, I still appreciate any reviews/comment anyone chooses to make about this fic.**

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><p>Rory had been dreaming about Ireland when his ring tone crept its way into his consciousness. He had been about to throw it at the wall when he saw the contact image on the screen. Sugar was smiling carelessly at the camera, a laugh on her pink lips about to fall. God, he let his head fall back on the pillow with a sigh, he was so in love with her.<p>

"Hello?" He stifled a yawn.

"Rory?" her voice was scratchy and muffled, as though...

"Rory I can't stop crying. This won't do. I can't have this." Rory was struck with the urge to spring up and run through the West Village and find her, but he took a deepbreath and tried to calm down. Whatever this was, it was his job to help her out with it and not freak out himself.

"Okay, okay tell me what's wrong. It's okay, just tell me what's happened."

"I don't want them to hurt me anymore, and I don't want them to start hurting you."

"The people at school?"

"Yes."

Rory heard sobs down the line, and they pulled at his heart. This wasn't fair. Sugar was the sweetest, kindest, most amazing girl he knew and she should never have to suffer. He would do whatever it took to stop this.

"I'm sorry to sound stupid, Rory. My head hurts and I just needed to call you. I just wanted to talk to you."  
>There was a comfortable silence as Rory listened to her breathing slow down slightly. He hoped that meant she'd stopped crying.<p>

"Sugar, do you need me to come over?"

"It's 3:05am, Rory."

"I know."

Rory had arrived at 3:47am at the Lopez-Pierce household, where a tearful Sugar let him in and took him up to her bedroom, which he didn't have time to consider exciting until the next morning. He acted on instinct, sitting down and pulling her towards him, clinging to her tight until the crying subsided. She told Rory about what had happened with Harmony, and about how she'd hit her head. It wasn't as though shed expected them to stay and check that she was okay, it just terrified her that they were getting more and more violent.

"Does it make me weak? I just don't want to be hurt."

"You're the opposite of weak," he said, tentatively wrapping an arm, "Does it still hurt?"

Sugar turned to him silently, tears frozen in her eyes and shook her head. "No."

He noticed how exhausted Sugar looked, and he started to tuck her back into her bed. When he looked at her face again, she'd stopped crying. "Thank you," she whispered, pulling Rory down beside her.

They both fell asleep with smiles on their faces.

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><p>The first thing Rory was aware of the next morning was what he hoped was the sound of the door slamming (but could have been a bomb going off). The second was Sugar springing out of the bed so fast you'd think it was on fire, and the third was the voice of Santana Lopez.<p>

"What in the name of Ani Difranco is going on in here?"

Rory froze, realising what this must have looked like. "It's really not what you think..." he mumbled with wide eyes, feeling himself retreat under Santana's stony gaze.

"Then what in the goddam world is it Sugar Lopez Pierce, because I'm about to go all Lima Heights on this leprechaun boy right now."

"No!" Sugar stepped forward defensively "No please this isn't his fault, I called him here. I was upset and I called him. He just came here to make me feel better and nothing happened, I swear," She knew the rambling wasn't going to work to her advantage, but she had to try.

Santana looked over at Rory, who was nodding frantically.

"If nothing happened, then why the _hell_ is he here?" Rory was starting to get scared; he could see the anger in her eyes.

"I trust you with everything Sugar, and if you think it's okay to just go ahead and do these things behind my back then I don't even want to know who my daughter is anymore."

He could see the anxiety in Sugar's eyes, and wanted to come to her defence, but he knew he'd say the wrong thing. Rory felt like it was his job to take care of things like these, it was him who had caused the trouble by being there, after all. A small voice interrupted his thoughts.

"I was scared."

Sugar was visibly shaking, and even Santana felt that something was wrong.

"I was hurt and I was scared and I asked him to come, please don't be mad." Her voice was choked, and she sobbed. "Mommy please don't be mad at me."

Rory tentatively walked over to it and took her hand. Aside from the brief glimpse last night, he'd never seen this side of Sugar before. She put on a brave face about everything, and he knew that she hadn't told her parents anything about what was happening at school. "Some people at school have been harassing her and she was upset, that's all."

Santana flared up again, but Rory could tell it was for a completely different reason.

"Someone thinks they can bully my kid?" She looked truly homicidal "Britt, get in here!"

Her wife showed up within seconds in a pink nightdress, putting her arms around Santana and frowning at the scene that greeted her "What's happening?"

"I think we need to talk," Santana looked stern. She gave Rory a lethal look and gestured towards the door. "Go home, Rory, you guys can see each other later- and not in a bedroom setting."

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><p>"Sugar?"<p>

They were sitting on their park bench, with Sugar's legs curled up underneath her, her head resting on Rory's shoulder.

"Are you ever going to tell them?"

"I told them everything I could, Rory," Sugar said without moving, her voice catching in her throat "Please, it was hard enough to tell them about the stuff Harmony did. I could never say that it was because of them, I can't make it think that it's their fault because it isn't. All they ever did was love me. Besides, they're going to talk to the school! Maybe it will stop."

They both knew it wasn't true.

"Please drop it; I can't have them know it's because of them."

Rory sighed. "I'm sorry." He hated this, he hated Sugar being treated like she was without being able to talk about it to anyone but him. But her family was everything to her, and he had to understand that.

"Another thing," Sugar looked up at him, a hint of humour in her eyes. "My moms called your daddies, and guess what?" She laughed out loud at the horror on Rory's face "You guys are coming to dinner Friday night."


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi! Sorry for the long wait in the coming of this chapter. I have so much school work to do and it is completely taking it out of me. I hope this is okay! Reviews would be nice.**

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><p>The first thing Brittany did when she saw the two men approach her was run forward and wrap them both in a suffocating hug. She was overjoyed to see them again, as she was always too nervous to try initiate contact with people. She knew that she hadn't gained the respect of everyone in high school, but when she saw the two of them standing on her porch with warm, loving smiles on their faces she couldn't help but smile back at them. They looked exactly the same to her, of course. All of them were older, and Sugar had professed that they looked nothing like their yearbook photos, but they all agreed that in their own eyes they hadn't aged a day. Even Santana pulled them each into a hug in turn, and Brittany was sure she saw tears in her eyes, something that was rarely exhibited in front of anyone other than herself.<p>

Kurt clapped his hands excitedly, "I can't believe it's you! I just can't believe you guys live here so close and we didn't know. I _missed_ you girls!" He beamed at them. Kurt had moved on a lot, they all had, but that didn't mean it didn't mean the world to him to see the two women happy and successful and _together._ This was exactly how things were supposed to turn out, and he had Blaine by his side to prove it.

"We have a lot of catching up to do," Santana said with a sentimental smile, "Come, sit down, we'll talk."

Sugar and Rory sat awkwardly in the corner of the living room, holding hands- watching in absolute awe as their parents recounted their high school days as if they'd never been parted. They were laughing together as though they were teenagers again, only laughing harder when the two youngest raised their eyebrows in bewilderment.

"You guys would have loved McKinley," Blaine told them with a sincere smile.

"Don't be ridiculous," Santana gave a genuine laugh "They'd hate it as much as we did."

"We did _not_ hate it!" Kurt protested, but he gave Santana a knowing smile. He'd never forget how happy he'd been the last time he had stepped outside of that school, knowing that he was free from all the bad memories. On seeing Santana's expression, Kurt faltered, chuckling to himself. "So perhaps we didn't have the best time there, but I'm still glad I went, aren't you?"

"You're glad about getting shoved into lockers every day and being tormented?" Santana frowned at him.

"Miss Lopez," Blaine winked at her, "Ever the optimist." Brittany laughed, and put an arm around Santana's shoulders lovingly.

"That's _Mrs_ Lopez-_Pierce_ to you, sir," Santana corrected "And you know what I'm talking about. I remember how miserable you used to be. I wanted to help you, and I tried to. But sometimes bullies can be scary for everyone, even a teenage me, and let me tell you, I was-"

"You were bullied in high school?" Sugar's quiet voice interjected, her eyes directed at Kurt, who looked at her with comforting eyes.

"It happens to the best of us, Sugar." It was as if he knew.

There was a silence, and Rory squeezed Sugar's hand tighter, moving imperceptibly closer to her.

"Did you guys ever hear what happened to the others?" Blaine leaned forward, eager to hear new of where his old friends had got to, although he was sure that they had all found success.

"After Finn and Rachel got divorced," Kurt interjected "We never found out what happened to her." He sank back in his chair, a regretful look flashing over his face. He hadn't spoken to Finn in years. He'd taken the divorce so hard that he'd moved back to Lima, going full circle back to the small town where he lived in solitude. Kurt would talk to him if he had something to say, but what do you say to someone who has nothing left, who had completely left his family behind? He pushed the thought aside, vowing to call when he felt comfortable doing so.

When he looked across the room, Brittany and Santana were looking at him with wide eyes.

"You guys don't _know?" _Brittany was looking at them as though they had just suggested gay marriage rights be revoked.

The men looked at each other with a confused expression.

"I'm sure you guys remember Quinn Fabray," Santana leaned towards them with a mischievous smile on her face. "How she and Rachel used to fight all the time, and then suddenly they would be best friends?" Kurt and Blaine nodded in unison.

"I can't believe you don't know!" Brittany interrupted with wide eyes. "I thought everybody knew. Quinn and Rachel got married- years ago! Their daughter, I mean, Rachel and Finn's daughter goes to the same school as Sugar now!"

"Harmony goes to RHS? Have you met her?"

"She's a bitch." Sugar raised an eyebrow and looked straight at the guests. "Thought you should know."

Rory hated the ignorant smiles on Brittany and Santana's faces, if only they knew what that girl was doing they wouldn't be speaking of her so fondly. A warning look from Sugar told him not to let anything on and he closed his open mouth, a sour feeling filling up in his chest. He'd had no idea that Kurt's stepbrother was to blame for such an existence. Before he knew it, Sugar was dragging him upward and pulling him out of the room.

"We'll be upstairs," Sugar told the adults in a choked voice.

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><p>By the time they got to Sugar's room, tears had already started to pour down her cheeks, and Rory pulled her into a hug- stroking her hair and holding her tight until she calmed down. It didn't feel awkward anymore, he noted.<p>

"I'm sorry," she sniffed. "I'm always crying these days."

The words broke his heart, and he pulled Sugar closer. "I don't want you to cry. Why haven't you told them about Harmony?"

"You don't know my mother." Sugar pulled back and looked at him seriously. "You think calling the school is all she's going to do? Santana likes revenge, and she'll get it in any way possible. If she finds out who it is she'll people. She might even contact Harmony's parents, and they'll try to talk to her about it and she'll know that I told."

"That's a good thing isn't it?" Rory felt so confused and lost. He desperately wanted to help Sugar, felt that it was his duty to do so- but this was all so far out of his reach.

"Don't you get it?" Sugar's expression broke his heart. "If Harmony finds out I told anyone she'll want to punish me for it. I know she doesn't look much, but she has a lot of people on her side." Her eyes looked hollow, and tears ran down her face. Rory sighed, pulling her back in and kissing her gently, unable to stop himself feeling dizzy from the closeness.

"I get it, I do." He whispered. "We'll find a way," he had to. "We'll find a way, I promise." Rory wasn't one to break his promises.


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm so sorry this took so long. The combination of exams, writers block and getting really sick twice has prevented me from doing this sooner. I put fluff in as an apology though!**

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><p>The clock on Sugar's bedside table told her it was 3:37am when she was awoken by a stuttered thumping sound. It took her a while to resurface from her sleep, and it wasn't for a few minutes that she realised that the sound was coming from her window or, more specifically, whatever was hitting her window in 10 second bursts. The child inside her told her not to leave the bed in fear of danger, but the curious side (which had a tendency to win) made her drag her tired body towards the window, just as a pebble collided with the glass. "What the..." She mumbled to herself, opening the window a crack to peer out. What she saw made a smile spread across her face for the first time in days.<p>

Standing below, dressed in pyjama pants and a green overcoat and wearing a conniving grin on his face was Rory, holding a bunch of pinecones to his chest. His arm rose to throw another when Sugar tapped on the glass. "Rory, Don't throw that at me!"She laughed when she saw the boy jump with surprise. Without another word, Sugar closed the window and grabbed a scarf and woolly sweater, before running onto the front porch and pulling Rory into a hug.

"You sleep like a freckin log, you know that?" The eyed her judgingly "It's freezing out here!"

"Sorry," Sugar said, taking his hand as an apology gesture, the ground was frosty this time of night

"I want to show you something, it's not far. Will you come?"

"I'm already up, aren't I?"

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><p>They walked hand in hand together along the empty domestic streets, shivering in the cold, until they reached the centre of town, where the street lamps were still on and the cars were still racing up and down the roads. Sugar felt slightly depleted at the interruption of their romantic atmosphere, but she had to admit that all this was giving her an adrenaline rush.<p>

"I've never been out this late before, where are we going?"

Rory winked at her "All in good time."

They started to walk faster and a smile plastered over Sugar's face. She felt free for the first time in a long time. Her skin was crawling with excitement over the fact that she'd just snuck out in the middle of the night and her parents would absolutely _murder_ her if they knew- but they didn't. Somehow that all made it feel more fun. She should have felt scared as they walked through the streets together, but the warm hand in her own felt more comforting than she thought it should have. Rory drew to a halt outside an inconceivably tall office building with only a few of the lights still on, and start typing a code into the lock.

"What the hell?" Sugar stared at him bewildered as he began to nonchalantly unlock the door. "How do you know that?"

He winked at her and gestured for her to follow him inside. Rory ran ahead of her through the hallways and into an elevator and Sugar followed in silence, unable to think of anything coherent to say.

"Did we just break into an office building?" She asked, as the elevator began to move towards the 26th floor.

"I have the code, remember? We didn't break in." Rory smiled at her, and Sugar began to panic. Maybe he had actually gone insane because he seemed unnaturally calm.

"Calm down!" Rory said with humour in his voice as he exited the elevator. He took out an office ID card and handed it to her. The ID had the recognisable face of Rory's father on it, with a silver hologram and a logo which read 'Hummel Interior Designs.'

"Your dad works here?" She started to relax slightly; at least they hadn't triggered any silent alarms.

"He works in the warehouses most days, but he comes here for business stuff." He had a glint in his eye, as though he found her distress amusing. "Come _on_ I swear I'm not going to get you arrested."

The office room was eerie and dark, the only sound being the humming of computer modems and their muffled footsteps on the industrial carpet. "Is there a reason why we came here?" Sugar asked, starting to wonder if she should have stayed in bed.

Rory didn't answer, only took her hand again and used his other hand to swipe the ID card on another door. When it opened she felt her eyes visibly widen.

The seemingly normal looking door opened onto a balcony. It was clean and well kept, with synthetic palm trees placed in all four corners and tasteful outdoor furniture that was more aesthetic than practical. But Sugar barely noticed any of that, not with the view that she saw before her. She'd been taken up to the top of the Empire State Building as a little girl, and she hadn't thought that any other view would be able to strike her the way this one did. It seemed as though she could see the entire city from up where they were, hell, it felt like she could see the whole world. There were distant lights and winding roads and tiny ant people walking through the night. It was breathtaking. She only snapped out of her trance when she heard Rory call her name from one of the wooden benches placed near the edge. She didn't take her eyes of the view as she walked over to sit next to him.

"You like?" Rory looked at her smugly and draped his arm over her shoulders.

Sugar looked up at him and shuffled close, pressing their cheeks together and taking a deep breath. "I love it," she smiled and kissed him on the cheek "Why did you take me here?"

"I figured you'd like it," Rory shrugged slightly "You have a lot on your mind and I thought it might help you unwind. Please don't take this moment to tell me you have a crippling fear of heights."

Sugar giggled "No, no I love it. It's freer up here, or it feels like it is."

"I know what you mean," Rory's blue eyes were gazing into the distance, as though he were looking for answers in the gaps between the buildings. "Sometimes I come here when the sun is setting and it helps me think about stuff. Before I was adopted I used to bottle everything up and I wouldn't talk to anyone." He looked over to her "I still don't talk to anyone about stuff, except my dads sometimes, but maybe that's not what I needed in the first place. I think I needed time to think it over."

Sugar nodded "You can talk to me if you want. Once you've though it through. If you ever do." She blushed, not wanting to sound pushy. She didn't want him to feel like being her boyfriend meant he had to pour his heart out, not if it still hurt him to do so.

"Thank you." Rory spun around suddenly and clasped both her hands "Listen, I promise I will someday, okay? I want to. Someday. But right now, I think I need to focus on moving forward. With you, as well."

Sugar nodded in understanding and smiled sadly at him. He looked so vulnerable in that moment. The lit windows were reflecting in his eyes, and it looked as though he were about to cry. He had a kind of sincerity on his face that made it feel like he was trying to push past the boundaries of the physical and show her what was on the inside. His soul, so to speak. She leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, holding onto his hands tightly.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a long time, gazing at the view and holding hands and exchanging kisses and feeling young. It was after almost a half hour of silence before Rory opened his mouth and out of the blue spoke "I love you," into the air, almost as though he was talking to the city.

Sugar felt a pleasant burning feeling in her chest, but she tried to remain still so he didn't think she was shocked or worried or horrified. She took a deep breath, and without taking her eyes off the river, whispered it back.

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><p>It was almost six by the time they were back on the streets, and the sky was beginning to get lighter again. They were holding hands still, and both of them had smiles on their faces as they chattered away about nothing in particular. Sugar was pointing out places she'd been with her mothers while she was a little girl, and Rory was laughing at her sarcastic anecdotes. As they got nearer her street, Sugar mellowed out a bit and slowed down her walking pace "Thank you so much for tonight, Rory. I'll remember it forever."<p>

Rory shrugged "It's not a problem. Maybe we'll go again sometime. But right now you should get home and climb back into bed so no one knows we were gone."

They were too doors away from her house when Sugar stopped abruptly

"Shit." She gulped.

"What?"

"I didn't bring my keys."

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><p><strong>Epic review time? Please?<strong>


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